Easter and More

This was a very different Easter for us.  Since we can't physically go to church, we've been watching Mass at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at the University of Notre Dame.  But we still got all gussied up on Easter and took some photos. 

My sweet girls.

Still sweet?

My gentleman and the dog.  I got in a lot of trouble.  "Tilly's a girl so she should be with us!" the girls cried.  But this was the was the only way to get George to smile.

Mary was not feeling it anymore at this point but I wanted a picture with all my kids,

This is a me making up for Tilly not being in the picture out front.

Just in case life wasn't scary enough, I took Patrick out to an empty parking lot to go for a drive.  I don't think he made it over 20mph but he did pretty well.

More e-learning.

And to keep it interesting, let's add some snow.

Mary used her time to write her name with a little help from Cecilia.

Patrick had to make up a game about the human skeleton system for science.  My guess is they were going to finish off the last few weeks of 8th grade playing these games.  Since they can't do it at school, we did it at home.  This was followed by a rousing game of Scattergories between Patrick, Becca, Mike and myself.  It was loud but oh so much fun. 

This week, I found this poster board, a card, and a giant donut on the front step.  Thank you St. Pat's Scholastic Bowl for this gift.

My girls were missing school so much, they put on their uniforms.

So April is over tonight and May will hopefully bring good tidings.  Patrick is still waiting to be confirmed and we don't know how graduation is gonna happen.  Life is one big "I don't know?" right now.  Our best to you and we pray for you all.

April at Home

Normal in April, we would be showing you pictures of soccer games, track meets, and lots of other activities.  Not in 2020!  E-learning, as shown here but Lia and Mary, has become totally clutch.

With no school, the girls got their fingernails painted.

Chess time.

We needed to get out of the house so we all went for walk.  Mary couldn't handled all the walking so Patrick helped her out.

Backyard craziness.

Mike wanted to kids to practice putting up the tent for our family trip.  This is the girls tent.

Cecilia and Mary doing their thing.

One of the good things that has happened during this shut down is Some Good News.  SGN is a youtube channel started by the actor John Krasinski, to bring some joy to everyone.  In the second episode, he arranged for a little girl to see "Hamilton" in NYC with her mother.  Then Lin-Manuel Miranda broke in with the whole cast of "Hamilton" to sing the opening song to her via Zoom.  (Zoom is also clutch right now!)  Being a huge fan, Becca lost her sh*t.

We are all wearing masks now because they are so comfortable.

Tilly remains unaffected by the pandemic.

Almost 7 weeks in and we are still sitting at home.  I know some people are really worried about this virus, others are not.  From what I understand, the sickness is really horrible and you don't want to get it but you're chances of dying are fairly small if you don't have other underlying conditions.  It is even possible some of the population already had it but don't know it.  But I do know that the longer we stay home, the harder it's going to be on the economy, which will cause other kinds of problems..  I pray the world can find a safe and logically way to return to "life as normal" soon before all hell breaks loose.

Lots of Dancing

The Daddy Daughter Dance is always a good time.  Becca decided to go to Global Fest that day, which allowed Cecilia to have Dad all to herself, just this one dance.  But first, we gotta do the hair.

Mary and I got beautified as well.

Last year, she cried.  This year, she couldn't stop grinning.

Group photos!

Kara got some awesome shots at the dance.  Mike was the Daddy Dance off champion this year.

Cecilia with her buddy Brooke.

The school holds a spaghetti supper every year that the 8th graders work to raise some funds. 

There is also a bake sale where the Hatton cookies (aka Dale cookies) are a big hit.

More 8th graders "working" hard.

And their parents in the kitchen.

After the clean up, the 7th and 8th graders have a dance.  I got to chaperone.

Not everyone likes to dance.

Or just hang out.

There were some harmless shenanigans.

Patrick was dared to dance with the principal, which he did without hesitation.  One of the kids told me it was the best dime he every spent.

Do the train!

It was a fun night for the kids and we were home by 9:30.